Car write off insurance offer low

jammie1

Three weeks ago I was involved in a 5 car shunt, the person at fault went into the back of me as she hadn't seen the traffic had stopped for a red light. So my car came off worse. The police are charging her for driving with undue care and attention, but she also had no MOT, no road tax and two bald tyres.
The insurance company have said it is a write off which I expected. They made an offer of £5k for my car which I disputed as I cannot replace like for like for less than about £6-£6.5k. I was asked to send in three online adverts from somewhere like autotrader, my model of car is very hard to find so sent 4 that were very similar (so differences were like 6 months older, less/more mileage) all were prices around £6.5k. Took them a week to get back to me and the engineer said he doesn't know why I was asked to do that as they can't look at them and will only go with the book price, and he increased the first offer by £200. I was very aware that the book price is lower, than what they are on the forecourt for. I don't know why but I do know that they sell very quickly and are hard to come by. So the engineer is going to file it as a dispute again. He said that the finacial ombudsman will only allow them to offer book value and not take into account forecourt price is this true?
What else can I do, I said to him about how wrong it was that I was going to end up out of pocket for an accident that was clearly not my fault. I don't hold out much hope with the insurance company as all they seem bothered about is getting the hire car off me as soon as possible, they have tried to de-hire it twice, when I said I was disputing the figure they said they would remove the hire car if I didn't accept the offer and I had to argue that that was basically blackmail!
Thanks for any help

rich13348

If you don't want to lose out on money you need GAP insurance. That will pay the diffference between the price you paid and the amount the insurance pay.

AdrianC

jammie1 wrote: »

He said that the finacial ombudsman will only allow them to offer book value and not take into account forecourt price is this true?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

Tammykitty

rich13348 wrote: »

If you don't want to lose out on money you need GAP insurance. That will pay the diffference between the price you paid and the amount the insurance pay.

Actually depends on the type of GAP insurance.
Some pay the difference between what the insurance pay and what you owe on finance - this is the most common type.


The insurance to pay out what you bought the car for are very expensive especially after 2 or 3 years.


The OP doesn't want back what they paid for the car, they want the market value to replace like with like, which is what the insurance company should pay out.


My insurance company looked at what was available on forecourts local to me and paid out what is would cost me to replace the car, which was significantly more than book value.

jammie1

It is so frustrating. I phoned the financial ombudsman and they said they would only be looking at book price too, it doesn't matter that to actually replace like for like would cost me more. So looks like I am going to be at least £1k out of pocket for an accident that wasn't my fault.

AdrianC

jammie1 wrote: »

It is so frustrating. I phoned the financial ombudsman and they said they would only be looking at book price too, it doesn't matter that to actually replace like for like would cost me more. So looks like I am going to be at least £1k out of pocket for an accident that wasn't my fault.

What car, what age? Are you sure you're being realistic about your comparisons?

This has been done to death here recently.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5420603

maddogb

Got a similar situation as you can see if you followed above link.
The route I have chosen is court action, I issued the summons via the online service a couple of weeks ago.
The Law I have gone with is the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts 1999 which is the relevant legislation from when I took out my policy, if you took out the policy sooner I believe its the consumer contracts regs.
The insurers are so keen on mentioning you have unrealistic expectations, the only thing I could say to that is so do they.
Give them the opportunity to show your expectations are unreal, allow them to replace the car instead of issuing a pay-out.


PS they have already lied to you, they DO NOT have to go with the ombudsmans guides but may actually be breaking the law in doing so.
The FOS I found were a waste of time and if you are tempted to go down this route make sure they enter the complaint as a protest against the payout, not an incorrect valuation.
Don't forget it is not in the interest of the FOS to end this situation permanently.

AdrianC

Don't forget to let us know the outcome of that court case...

facade

The scam here is that the payout puts you back in the same position as you were before the crash financially.

Before you had a car that was worth £5000, now you have £5000 cash, so financially you are in the same position.

Tough luck that you paid way way over the odds to buy it originally, and will have to pay way more than it was worth to replace it.:o

maddogb

facade wrote: »

The scam here is that the payout puts you back in the same position as you were before the crash financially.

Before you had a car that was worth £5000, now you have £5000 cash, so financially you are in the same position.

Tough luck that you paid way way over the odds to buy it originally, and will have to pay way more than it was worth to replace it.:o

It depends on whether or not it's his insurers or the 3rd party, no one pays car insurance for the purpose of a payout, unless you are a crook.

facade

maddogb wrote: »

It depends on whether or not it's his insurers or the 3rd party, no one pays car insurance for the purpose of a payout, unless you are a crook.

Wasn't suggesting anyone was/is a crook, just that the idea that an insurance payout is obliged to put you back behind the wheel of an identical car is wrong.